Georgia’s economy is gaining momentum, thanks to favorable domestic conditions, strong external demand, and landmark achievements including the country's association agreement with the EU in mid-2014 and the coming into effect of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area.
Read More »

Ratings for the First East West Highway
Improvement Project for Georgia were as follows: outcomes
were satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was
moderate, the... Show More + Bank performance was satisfactory, and the
Borrower performance was also satisfactory. Some lessons
learned included: construction of complex structures (large
bridges and tunnels) requires parallel support in standards,
design and supervision beyond preparation of traditional
design and use of supervision consultants. Technical
assistance activities which require revision of standards or
practices or legal frameworks to reach higher standards
(e.g. European standards) or more modern practices should
always be designed with close collaboration between
international consultants and local consultants. Technical
assistance activities related to modernization of human
resources (HR) management are likely to be implemented only
if they are linked to the on-going reform in the agency. A
corridor and framework approach should be applied in
preparation and implementation of the same type of road projects. Show Less -

The development objective of the Kakheti
Regional Roads Improvement Project for Georgia is to reduce
transport costs and improve access and traffic safety for
the Kakheti... Show More + regional roads. This level two restructuring
will bring the following changes: (i) a 21-month extension
of the project closing date from November 30, 2013 to August
30, 2015; (ii) inclusion of the Sasadilo-Sioni road and 5
bridges in component one for rehabilitation using the
savings of the project; (iii) modification of capacity
strengthening activities under component two to reflect
organizational changes in the roads department (RD) in 2010
and support capacity building of the RD and construction
industry in the design-build contracting modality which will
be piloted under this project after restructuring, and
additional studies to improve the major road safety black
spot in the area; and (iv) revising the results framework to
accommodate the above changes in the project activities and
reflect more realistic targets. Show Less -

The objective of the Kakheti Regional
Roads Improvement Project for Georgia is to: (i) reduce
transport costs and improve access between Vaziani, Gombori
and Telavi;... Show More + and (ii) improve traffic safety along the
Vaziani-Gombori-Telavi (VGT) road and along the
Vaziani-Sagarejo-Bakhurtsikhe-Bakhurtsikhe-Gurjaani-Telavi
road. Some of the negative impacts include: noise pollution,
soil pollution, water pollution, spoil and inert
construction wastes, hazardous construction wastes, topsoil
losses due to topsoil stripping, impact on archaeological
sites, and transport related impacts. Mitigation measures
include: 1) prevent operation of vehicles in the river and
if there is no alternative, inspection of vehicles will be
required to ensure that there is no leakage of fuel and
lubricating materials; 2) contractors will ensure the proper
handling of lubricants, fuel and solvents. Fuel and
lubricant storage tanks will not be located within 50m of
any watercourse, well or dry gorges; 3) allow local
communities to utilize any excess rock, which may be left
following reuse. Suitable access to the materials will be
agreed with the local authorities in consultation with the
community; 4) topsoil removed from the highway itinerary
will be used for reinstatement of the topsoil in the
adjacent construction corridor affected by the project
activities. Topsoil from the sites, which will not be
reinstated to the initial conditions will be distributed
carefully on the surrounding area; and 5) road department
should ensure permanent erosion and land stability control
and monitoring of landscape restoration after completion of
construction works, as well as timely implementation of
corrective actions. Show Less -

Ratings for the Secondary and Local
Roads Project for Georgia were as follows: outcomes were
satisfactory; risk to development outcome was low or
negligible; Bank performance... Show More + was satisfactory and borrower
performance was also satisfactory. Some lessons learned
included: during implementation, it is important for the
Bank team to include required skills blend. For several
years during implementation, the Bank team did not include a
road engineer and this limited the outputs from site visits
and thus the teams ability to carry out its due diligence
responsibility. An assessment of the local construction
industry should be carried out during preparation of a
project with significant civil works activities particularly
if several operations are needed. Findings and
recommendations of such analysis should then be used to
determine actions under the project to ensure adequate
participation of the local construction industry in project
implementation. Such a study should have been part of
project preparation or included in the Additional Financing
(AF) given the difficulties being experienced in adequately
involving the local construction industry in the civil
works. During preparation of new projects with the same
implementing agency, the Bank should be aware of the impact
on the ability of the agency to effectively implement all of
the projects with Bank involvement. Show Less -

Ratings for the Second East-West Highway
Improvement Project for Georgia were as follows: overall
outcome was moderately satisfactory, the risk to development
outcome... Show More + was substantial, and both the Bank and the Borrower
performance were moderately satisfactory. The important
project lessons learned were: (1) Political economy plays a
critical and direct role in highly visible projects. (2) A
corridor and framework approach should be applied in
preparation and implementation of the same type of road
projects. In this way, a corridor approach will be followed
in subsequent projects - and thus, the same framework will
be applied throughout the entire road corridor. (3) The
Project should allocate sufficient time and budget for the
pre-construction activities, including preparation and
review of designs. (4) Both the client and the Bank need to
be very diligent in ensuring that reporting requirements
from both the contractor and the supervision consultant are
enforced in order to ensure that contract management be
exercised without putting the client in a weak position with
the contractor. (5) If establishment or operation of a road
safety inter-agency coordinating body is included in the
project's results framework, the project should also
include support to this body. (6) Traffic safety should be
enforced by the employer and supervision consultants on all
construction works in Georgia. Show Less -

The objective of the Second Secondary
and Local Roads Project (SLRP II) for Georgia is to improve
local connectivity and travel time for selected secondary
and local... Show More + roads, and to strengthen the capacity of the Roads
Department (RD) to manage the road network. There are two
components to the project, the first component being
rehabilitation and improvement of selected secondary and
local roads. This component will rehabilitate and improve
various secondary and local roads throughout the country.
The Government has identified 19 road sections with a total
length of about 225 km, as listed in annex two, for the
first two years of project implementation. The first year
program will include at least six road sections, with a
total length of about 61 km, for which designs have been
completed. Selection of the firms to design the planned
rehabilitation under the second year program is also well
advanced. Finally, the second component is the institutional
strengthening and project management. This component will
finance the provision of goods, consultants' services,
and training aimed at strengthening the capacity of RD and
Foreign Project Unit (FPU) in: (a) project management and
implementation; (b) identifying, developing and implementing
road safety measures on secondary and local roads; and (c)
carrying out impact evaluations. Show Less -

The objectives of the Second East-West
Highway Improvement Project are: (i) to contribute to the
gradual reduction of road transport costs and improve ease
of transit,... Show More + and safety along the central part of
Georgia's East-West corridor, through upgrading a
segment of the East-West Highway from Tbilisi to Rikoti; and
(ii) to strengthen the capacity of the government agencies
(and particularly RDMED) to develop and implement a traffic
safety program. The extension is necessary to ensure that
the remaining project activities, related to the
Igoeti-Sveneti road construction section of the E-60
highway, are completed. The civil works contract for this
section was first awarded to Ashtrom International, Ltd in
February 2008. This first contract was terminated by the
roads department in July 2010 due to non performance by the
contractor. A second civil works contract was subsequently
awarded to New Energy - Al Hamra - Zimo Joint Venture in
June 2011 to complete the remaining civil works comprising:
(a) completion of the road construction; (b) remedial
repairs; (c) construction of access and local roads; (d)
construction of additional road safety measures; (e)
environmental remediation activities; and (f) compensatory
tree planting to rectify non-compliance with the
Environmental Management Plans (EMP) due to the poor
performance of the first contractor. Show Less -